New NEA study finds that artists are rich October 31, 2011: Ah, some remarkable news for those of us who throw pottery clay (at first we typed poettry clay!) or wield a poetry pen or paintbrush or, well, you get it. Artists have higher salaries, reports The New York Times! Artists in America constitute a tiny portion of the nation’s work force, but they tend to be more entrepreneurial, better [...] by Harriet Staff

Pickin’ on Wendell Berry October 31, 2011: This Telegraph article tells of Boston Bluegrass band Crooked Still's new EP, which, among other covers, offers a version of Wendell Berry's "The Peace of Wild Things". The band - Gregory Liszt (banjo), Aoife O'Donovan (vocals, guitar), Brittany Haas (fiddle), Tristan Clarridge (cello) and Corey DiMario (double bass) - are one of the [...] by Harriet Staff

The Website for Edgar Allan Poe’s Literary Magazine Would Probably be Awesome October 31, 2011: This post from Luna Park lets us in on a prospectus that Edgar Allan Poe wrote for his literary journal The Penn Magazine, which, sadly, never came to fruition. Here's a sample. You can also find it here. PROSPECTUS OF THE PENN MAGAZINE, A MONTHLY LITERARY JOURNAL, TO BE EDITED AND PUBLISHED IN THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA,BY EDGAR A. [...] by Harriet Staff

Javier Sicilia organizes memorial in Mexico City October 31, 2011: Poet and activist Javier Sicilia has organized a memorial for the estimated 40,000 to 50,000 people who've lost their lives to narco-violence in Mexico over the past few years. Beginning this evening, Sicilia's Movement for Peace and Justice with Dignity will lead a silent march to the Angel of Independence monument in Mexico City. They will hold [...] by Harriet Staff

ROSA’S POEM October 31, 2011: I was just looking at this poem by Rosa Alcala called “Pedagogy.” It’s a poem about a woman looking at another woman and each of them is a woman of “another” generation and “another” race so the narrator’s looking (perhaps) across an enormous divide. Yet looking is the place where all these distances meet. This looking happens [...] by Eileen Myles

It Isn’t All Weird-Beyond-Weird Political Ads, Herman “The Hermanator” Cain Also Writes Poems October 31, 2011: And they are exactly what you'd expect, and gathered here by The Observer's PolitickerNY. A little intro, and then a poem. Herman Cain isn’t just the Republican Presidential frontrunner and former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, he’s also a motivational speaker and poet. Archived versions of Mr. Cain’s official website reveal his [...] by Harriet Staff

Irish Poet Wins Presidency October 31, 2011: Michael Higgins, "70-year-old poet and former arts minister" will be Ireland's next president, according to this article from Herald Post. "In the last hour I've called Michael D Higgins to congratulate him on his performance and his success in this election," Sean Gallagher, an independent candidate and businessman, said in a [...] by Harriet Staff

“Poets and murder were made for each other”: WSJ Reviews Killer Verse October 31, 2011: Happy Halloween! Treat yourself to an anthology of murder verse, perhaps? This review at Wall Street Journalcertainly makes the case for it. How can murder be poetic? Harold Schechter and Kurt Brown show us in the anthology "Killer Verse," a volume small enough to fit into a holster but with plenty of firepower. The co-editors assert [...] by Harriet Staff

The Week We Made Contingency Plans October 28, 2011: Go for the brass ring! Put it all on red! Burn the boats! Also, come armed with a Plans B-Y, in case the tricks outweigh the treats. (Plan Z is reserved for trained professionals.) If something can’t be said: Go ‘head and scream. If your pot-smoking-smelly-jobless-hippie jokes aren’t that sharp or original: Consider devoting some [...] by Harriet Staff

A Kooky Dorothea Tanning at MoMA October 28, 2011: Abigail Deutsch recounts Dorothea Tanning's recent presentation at MoMA for Bookforum, noting that the 101-year-old surrealist poet and painter had a crowd of mostly gray or graying, but that she (as Tanning once self-described) “breathes words, as well as air, and looks at her paintings with amazement.” She continues: Everyone at [...] by Harriet Staff